When individuals travel, they often find themselves in risky or dangerous situations. Every year hikers are attacked by bears, become lost, or are injured. When dangerous circumstances arise, there is a need to guarantee that emergency response actions are promptly initiated and help is delivered in a timely manner. For this reason, hikers have adopted a variety of practices and technologies that allow emergency crews to respond promptly when the hikers become endangered.
A common method used by hikers is to manually register in written logbooks at trailheads before entering wilderness areas. In a dangerous situation, such as a sudden storm, emergency response personnel can refer to the logbooks and determine who is in the zone of danger. This approach, however, has limited efficacy because the logbooks only inform of the presence of hikers inside a particular wilderness area. Moreover, such presence information is unreliable because it is impossible to guarantee that the all hikers who entered the wilderness area have diligently registered their names.
Another approach adopted by hikers is to carry electronic communication devices that allow the hikers to send emergency alerts to a centralized safety system. This approach, however, does not provide a guarantee that emergency response personnel will be alerted at all times when this is necessary. In particular, the approach fails when the electronic communication devices fall out of range, lose power, or are lost. If the electronic communication device of a hiker is lost, the centralized safety system will not detect that the hiker is left without means to send an emergency alert. Similarly, if the hiker is rendered unconscious or disabled before having the opportunity to send an emergency alert, the centralized safety system will not be appraised that the hiker is facing danger.
Therefore a need exists for a reliable system by which travelers can obtain a guarantee that timely and appropriate emergency response actions will be initiated if their safety is threatened.